


Boats Against the Current

by kuumai



Series: Gentron Week 2020 [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Keith (Voltron) Angst, POV Keith (Voltron), Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26623726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuumai/pseuds/kuumai
Summary: “You should take a break,” Acxa says.“That’s what I’m doing now.”“I mean a break from work. Visit Krolia. Or go to Earth.”
Relationships: Acxa & Keith (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron)
Series: Gentron Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863325
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Boats Against the Current

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Meeting the Family

When Keith lived by himself on Earth, he had a great deal of time to spend, when he wasn’t trying to figure out what was up with the runes that he now knows marked the location of the Blue Lion. 

Sometimes, he watched the prairie dogs and sketched them poorly. Sometimes, he laid below the stars and thought of his father. Sometimes, he read.

He had only a few books at home, but what he did have, he read ceaselessly. He read his father’s copies of  _ The Great Gatsby _ and  _ Johnny Tremain _ and  _ The Things They Carried  _ until their covers fell off. When he went into town, he would sit for hours in the public library under the flickering lights, reading whatever had a title or cover that enticed him. 

Now, years later, he doesn’t remember much of what he read. Mostly, he remembers the places in which he read them, or the emotions they made him feel. 

He does remember one scene in  _ The Things They Carried _ , in which the narrator tells and retells the same story of being injured in a battle several times, each time changing a small detail until it became clear that what he remembered happening was not what happened at all. In fact, this representation of how fragile memory can be has caused Keith a great deal of stress since he himself became part of a war. What might he remember incorrectly? By recalling battles in which he fought, is he pulling his memories farther and farther from reality? 

He also remembers reading about Zeno’s paradoxes. The one that sticks with him is the paradox that states that in order to travel from one point to another, one must travel halfway between these points. And before reaching the halfway point, one must travel a quarter of the way there. And before getting a quarter of the way to the destination, one must first travel an eighth of the way. Basically, in order to go anywhere, one must travel an infinite amount of space.

Usually, Keith does not think in metaphors. It’s much more effective to say things in the most straightforward, concise way possible. So when he first heard of this paradox, he thought to himself that it was a useless way of thinking. Obviously to walk five feet, he does not have to walk an infinite distance. He only has to walk five feet. 

And yet, the paradox stuck with him. 

He thinks of this paradox on mornings like this, when he lays in bed after a poor night of sleep, and his head is pounding dully, and he can’t stop wondering if the Blade’s post-war relief efforts were at all helpful to anyone in the long run, because visiting briefly to drop off supplies would never solve deep-seated socioeconomic instability. On most days, he reminds himself that bringing food and water to those who do not have enough food or water must be helpful, and on most days this works because he likes to think in this straightforward way and because he doesn’t have enough time to think more deeply about it.

On days like today, however, he can’t stop worrying, and he thinks of Zeno’s paradox, and he thinks that it makes sense, because it definitely feels like there is infinite space between his bed and the door, and he’s laying in bed, and he’s stuck, and he can’t move because of the weight on his chest. 

But there are people who do not have food and water, and he is traveling to another planet today, so he gets up anyway. He ignores the weight and the fatigue and carries on. He crosses the infinite space between his bed and his door, and carries on.

Keith and a modest team of blades are on Ardenbel today, one of the planets that wasn’t liberated until after the war was won. Zethrid passes him a box, and he carries it to one of their partners on Ardenbel who will know how best to distribute the contents. 

Blinking away the dust in the air, Keith sees someone waving shyly at him, and he waves back. 

A child tugs on his hand, and he smiles at them and crouches, shows them how his mask turns on and off when they quietly ask. They smile, and then run to hide behind their mother. The mother is holding a toddler, and the toddler is screaming, and the mother looks embarrassed, as if it’s her fault. Keith brings them a pouch of water directly.

Then he returns to Zethrid to get another box. 

He’s unsure how much time has passed, because the sun has been up the whole time they’re there; days on this planet are much longer than twenty-four hours or twenty vargas. All he knows is he’s tired and drenched in sweat, so he takes a brief moment to sit in the shadow cast by their cargo ship. 

When he stands again, his vision goes gray and his knees go weak, and Acxa appears at his side to help him back to the ground. 

She presses a water pouch into his hand, and he pushes it away. “Someone else should—”

“No, you need to drink,” she says. “The rest of us have taken our meal breaks already, and I know you haven’t. You can’t fool me.” 

He wasn’t trying to fool her; he didn’t skip his break on purpose. But the dull headache from this morning has returned, so instead of trying to explain this to her, he drinks. Then he puts his head between his knees and expects Acxa to leave. She doesn’t.

“You should take a break,” she says.

“That’s what I’m doing now.”

“I mean a break from work. Visit Krolia. Or go to Earth.”

Keith is thankful that he isn’t looking her in the eyes. “I don’t have time,” he says.

“We’ll be okay without you.”

The breath leaves Keith’s lungs. For a moment, he’s at the Castle of Lions again, listening to Lance explain that there are six paladins now, and he’s on the bridge, listening to Allura tell him that he’s let the team down, and—he must be really tired, because he hasn’t felt that out of his depth in a long time.

But he knows that Acxa doesn’t mean that they don’t need him. She just speaks bluntly, which he appreciates. Even so, he raises his head and protests. 

“There are already so few Blades working, and so many planets.”

“I can tell by watching you work today that you need rest,” she says. “We are so thankful all you’ve done for the Blade and the universe, but we won’t think less of you for visiting your friends.”

Keith sighs and glares at the red dirt beneath him. 

You need rest, Acxa said, but the truth is that Keith doesn’t know how to rest anymore. 

He hails Earth, and someone he doesn’t know answers. She’s wary of him until he explains that he was the Black Paladin of Voltron, and then her eyes light up with recognition and surprise, and she lets him land his ship at the Garrison. 

Word travels fast at the Garrison, and Pidge and Matt are waiting for him when he exits his ship. He hugs both of them. Pidge says that they weren’t expecting him or she would have taken off work, and Keith brushes it off and makes some comment on how much taller she is.

He asks if he can borrow a hovercraft, and Pidge says of course he can, but she looks sad while saying it. Keith isn’t sure why.

He drives down to that little house in the desert, kicking up dirt and scaring a couple poor lizards on the way. He didn’t visit this place at all during the months they spent on Earth, preparing the IGF-Atlas for launch. 

When he gets there, his corkboard of notes about the runes is still out. He sets his backpack on the couch next to the taped-together copy of  _ The Great Gatsby _ . He brushes dust off of its cover, then picks it up and moves it to the shelf in the bedroom, where the rest of the books are. Once he’s set the book on the shelf, he turns to see that the bed is made. Sitting a neatly folded pile on the end of the bed is the prison garb that Shiro was wearing when Keith first found him. 

Keith shivers involuntarily. This house is like some creepy sort of time capsule.

He picks up the clothes and heads to the kitchen. Fetches a garbage bag from a cabinet. On the coffee table are several wrappers from the protein bars Keith gave Lance, Hunk, and Pidge on the night they first met. He throws the wrappers and the prison clothes in the garbage bag. 

He’s about to leave, then decides he should change out of his Blade of Marmora suit, but he doesn’t have any Earth clothes in his bag.

He goes to the bedroom and looks through the dresser drawers. In the bottom drawer are his pajamas. He finds a pair of sweatpants that used to be too big on him and a shirt that has some faded band name printed on it. It was his pop’s shirt once upon a time, but he let Keith sleep in it one night when they were behind on laundry and Keith had no clean pajamas of his own, and Keith kept it ever since. On the night he first wore it, it went down to his shins. Now it’s the only t-shirt he can find that isn’t too tight. 

After he changes into the clothes, Keith stares at himself in the dusty floor length mirror in the corner of the room, and he understands why Acxa said that she could tell he needed rest just by looking at him. He looks  _ tired.  _ For a moment, he’s feeling the infinite space between himself and his reflection. He shakes it off.

Keith stuffs his Blade suit into his backpack, grabs the garbage bag, and heads outside to the hovercraft. Before he takes off again, he glances at his phone. There are messages from Hunk and Lance. He shuts his phone off without reading them.

He’s almost driven all the way to town before he wonders if the town was destroyed when the Galra took over. It’s like he forgot that—well, of course he didn’t forget that the Galra took over. But visiting the house felt like stepping back in time. He forgot that the town might not be so untouched.

He worries for nothing, though, because the town is still there. Keith parks the craft, finds a dumpster and drops the garbage bag there. 

Keith stares at the dumpster for what is probably a weirdly long amount of time. He doesn’t know what to do with free time. He decides to go for a walk. 

At one point, he passes an old man who looks vaguely familiar. The man asks where he’s from, and Keith isn’t sure how to answer that. He avoids the question, and the man looks at him suspiciously, but walks on. Back when Keith used to visit this town, no one ever questioned him.

Keith reaches the library he used to visit, and it looks much smaller than he remembers. He considers going inside, then thinks better of it. He’d forgotten that in a small town like this, people will talk to strangers, or at least inspect them curiously. Especially strangers that show up in the middle of the afternoon and waltz around like they know the place. Keith doesn’t fancy talking or being inspected at the moment, so he sits on a bench in front of the building and opens his text messages.

Hunk says that he hears that Keith is on Earth, and to say hi to everyone for him. 

Lance says not to be a stranger, and to let him know if he needs anything. 

Keith presses the call button by Lance’s contact before he realizes what he’s doing. He almost cancels the call, but before he does, Lance picks up.

“Keith?” Lance sounds slightly out of breath.

“Hi.”

“Are you okay?”

Keith tilts his head at the question, even though Lance can’t see him. “Uh, yeah.”

“Really?” Lance asks. “You never call, so I was worried.”

“Well, I was going to respond to your text, but writing out words seemed like a lot of work.”

Lance gives a short laugh, then seems to realize that Keith isn’t totally kidding, and sobers up. “Pidge said you came to the Garrison without warning anyone that you were visiting, and then ran off almost immediately.”

That  _ had _ been kind of rude of him, Keith thinks belatedly as he watches a lone car drive past. “It’s just that there are a lot of people there, and they’ll expect me to talk about what I’ve been up to, and I don’t know,” Keith says. “I wanted a little quiet.”

Lance hums like he understands, but Keith isn’t sure that he actually does. “Where are you now?” 

“Small town a little ways from the Garrison. Near where my dad and I used to live.”

“I know this wouldn’t be the quiet you’re looking for, but my family would love it if you came to visit us. Maybe stay overnight,” Lance says. Then, after a second: “If you’re up for traveling.”

Keith nearly chuckles. Driving to Lance’s house would be nothing compared to his trips he makes between planets on the regular. “I’d like that, actually,” he says.

A few hours later, the sun has begun to set, and Keith parks his hovercraft in front of Lance’s house as Lance runs outside to greet him. Keith barely touches the ground before Lance pulls him into a tight hug, and Keith squeezes him back. 

Lance pulls away, but keeps his hands on Keith’s shoulders. “It’s been so long,” Lance says. Keith’s face is split into a grin.

Lance doesn’t waste a second pushing Keith into the house and telling him to take of his shoes. He’s grown accustomed to the cool grays common to Galra culture, but warm, earthy tones of the decor put him at ease.

Lance’s whole family is home and waiting inside for Keith, except for Veronica, who’s on the IGF-Atlas. Keith guiltily recalls that he’s never met any of the others in person before. He doesn’t have much time to feel sorry before Lance is introducing him to everyone. 

“Here are my brothers Marco and Luis, and Luis’s wife Lisa, and there are the kids, Silvio and Nadia.”

Keith nods and smiles to each of them in turn. Nadia hides shyly behind her mom, but Silvio grins and holds out a fist, so Keith gives him a fist-bump. 

Lance throws an arm around the shoulders of a girl with long, dark hair. “This is my baby sister, Rachel,” he says. “Because of the weird time jump thing after we battled Lotor, we’re nearly the same age. But she’ll always be the baby in my heart.”

Rachel shoves him away from her, and Lance puts a hand over his heart as though he’s shocked and offended, but they’re both smiling. 

“This is Pop-Pop, my abuelo,” Lance continues, “and this is my mom.”

When he reaches Lance’s mom, Keith makes as though to shake her hand, but she ignores it and pulls him into a warm hug. 

“We’re so glad to finally meet you, Keith,” she says. 

“It’s good to meet you, too,” Keith replies. Before anyone can say anything else, Lance’s mom herds everyone into the dining room, and Keith finds himself eating dinner with all of them.

He tries to apologize for the short notice, but she waves him off immediately. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” she says. “Always enough to share at my table.” 

So he sits between Lance and Rachel, who is only allowed at the adult table because Veronica isn’t here, and stuffs himself with Lance’s mom’s incredible cooking. 

Silvio explains in detail everything he did at school today, then tries to convince Nadia to do the same, but she’s more hesitant to talk. Rachel complains that college costs so much even though she’s taking all her classes online, and why must she get an expensive textbook for every single class? No one asks him about his work, and Keith suspects that Lance told them not to do so because of their earlier conversation. 

Once Keith has cleared his plate and successfully convinced Lance’s mom that he’s full, he stands to take it to the kitchen, but Luis takes his dishes before he can process what’s happening. So he sits back down. 

At some point, there’s a lull in conversation, and Lisa turns to Keith. “How’s your mother?” she asks. 

Keith is a bit thrown by the question, instinctively trying to gauge whether everyone will be uncomfortable with him talking about his Galra mother. But he supposes that if Lisa is asking about his mother specifically, they all must know of Krolia. “She’s doing well, last I heard,” he says. “We’re both with the Blade of Marmora, but we haven’t worked together in a while. But from what she tells me, she’s well.”

“That’s good,” Lisa says with a smile, and the conversation moves on from there. 

Keith doesn’t realize how much time has passed sitting at the table until Rachel excuses herself to finish homework and Marco goes to wrap up chores outside. 

Luis glances at his phone, stands, and says, “I should take the little ones to bed.” Silvio and Nadia ran off to play long ago, and he and Lisa leave to track them down. 

Lance’s mom rises from her seat and pats Keith on the shoulder. With a smile, she says, “I guess I’ll leave you in Lance’s hands for now.” She collects the last of the dishes from the table and disappears through an archway. 

Keith rubs a hand across his face and yawns. “So,” he says. “What’s the plan?”

“The plan is you go to sleep,” Lance says, standing

“Really? I get the same bedtime as the kids?”

“Exactly,” says Lance, patting Keith’s head. “I’m glad you understand, my child.”

Keith bats Lance’s hand away and scowls, but he doesn’t fight it when Lance ushers him upstairs to his room. 

Lance insists that Keith take the twin bed and Lance use a sleeping bag on the floor, because he’s seen the cots they have on the Blade of Marmora ships, and those things are, like, blasphemous to the name of all sleeping utensils everywhere. Keith tells him that’s not what utensil means, but Lance won’t hear it. 

When Keith slips under the covers without changing, Lance balks. “You sleep with socks on?” he asks incredulously.

“Uh, yes?” Keith replies, tugging the sheets up defensively. He doesn’t want to know how Lance would react if he admitted he used to sleep with his boots on.

“You really are an alien,” Lance says, sitting on the sleeping bag.

“Shut up,” says Keith, rolling onto his side so he’s facing away from Lance.

“There’s Keith.”

Keith snorts. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. You sounded all spacey on the phone. Haven’t been acting like yourself.” Lance’s voice is quiet. Hesitant. 

Keith isn’t sure how he’s supposed to respond to that. “Oh.”

“It’s just—I was worried about you. Pidge and Matt were, too, after they saw you.”

“Oh,” Keith repeats. “I’m sorry. I was—it’s been a rough few days. I needed to rest, but even after I got here, my mind wouldn’t rest, you know? This was good, though. Helpful.” He turns back over and sees that Lance is staring at him. “Thank you.”

Lance turns away, suddenly shy, and lays down. “Ah, no, don’t worry about it. My mama really wanted to meet you, and it’s been forever since I’ve seen you, so my motive is totally selfish.”

Keith smiles and closes his eyes. “I’m sure.”

“Alright, that’s enough out of you. Go to sleep.”

“Good night to you too, Lance.”

Keith blinks his eyes open to see the room is bright with warm daylight, and there’s a child leaning over him.

“Um. Hello,” says Keith. His voice is raspy with sleep.

“Hello,” says Silvio.

“What time is it?”

“Almost noon. You slept at least thirteen hours. Lance says I’m not allowed to wake you up.”

“I see you took his advice well.” Keith sits up and stretches. His back feels impossibly stiff. “Wow. Thirteen hours?”

“I wanted to come check on you, ‘cause I figured you were hungry, and you missed breakfast, but I can get you leftovers from the fridge and put them in the microwave, or you can have cereal if you want cereal,” Silvio explains, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Keith’s impressed that he said all of that in one breath. Silvio skips out of the room. “Come on!”

Keith crosses the distance between the bed and the door easily. This morning, his shoulders are light.


End file.
